gunthercox ChatterBot up to 1.2.10 get_response resource consumption

Summaryinfo

A vulnerability has been found in gunthercox ChatterBot up to 1.2.10 and classified as problematic. Affected by this vulnerability is the function get_response. This manipulation causes resource consumption. The identification of this vulnerability is CVE-2026-23842. It is possible to initiate the attack remotely. There is no exploit available. The affected component should be upgraded.

Detailsinfo

A vulnerability has been found in gunthercox ChatterBot up to 1.2.10 and classified as problematic. Affected by this vulnerability is the function get_response. The manipulation with an unknown input leads to a resource consumption vulnerability. The CWE definition for the vulnerability is CWE-400. The product does not properly control the allocation and maintenance of a limited resource, thereby enabling an actor to influence the amount of resources consumed, eventually leading to the exhaustion of available resources. As an impact it is known to affect availability. The summary by CVE is:

ChatterBot is a machine learning, conversational dialog engine for creating chat bots. ChatterBot versions up to 1.2.10 are vulnerable to a denial-of-service condition caused by improper database session and connection pool management. Concurrent invocations of the get_response() method can exhaust the underlying SQLAlchemy connection pool, resulting in persistent service unavailability and requiring a manual restart to recover. Version 1.2.11 fixes the issue.

The advisory is shared at github.com. This vulnerability is known as CVE-2026-23842 since 01/16/2026. The exploitation appears to be easy. The attack can be launched remotely. The exploitation doesn't need any form of authentication. Technical details are known, but no exploit is available. MITRE ATT&CK project uses the attack technique T1499 for this issue.

Upgrading to version 1.2.11 eliminates this vulnerability. The upgrade is hosted for download at github.com. Applying the patch de89fe648139f8eeacc998ad4524fab291a378cf is able to eliminate this problem. The bugfix is ready for download at github.com. The best possible mitigation is suggested to be upgrading to the latest version.

The vulnerability is also documented in the vulnerability database at EUVD (EUVD-2026-3299). If you want to get the best quality for vulnerability data then you always have to consider VulDB.

Productinfo

Type

• Chat Software

Vendor

• gunthercox

Name

• ChatterBot

Version

• 1.2.0
• 1.2.1
• 1.2.2
• 1.2.3
• 1.2.4
• 1.2.5
• 1.2.6
• 1.2.7
• 1.2.8
• 1.2.9
• 1.2.10

License

• open-source

Website

• Product: https://github.com/gunthercox/ChatterBot/

CPE 2.3info

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CPE 2.2info

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If you want to get the best quality for vulnerability data then you always have to consider VulDB.

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